Bede's Ecclesiastical History of EnglandBede, the Venerable, Saint
History
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England
Bede, the Venerable, Saint
England -- Church history -- 449-1066
Chap. VII. How it was indicated by a light from heaven where the bodies of
the nuns should be buried in the monastery of Berecingum. [675 A.D.?]
In this monastery many miracles were wrought, accounts of which have been
committed to writing by those who were acquainted with them, that their
memory might be preserved, and succeeding generations edified, and these
are in the possession of many persons; some of them we also have taken
pains to include in our History of the Church. At the time of the
pestilence, already often mentioned,(584) which ravaged all the country
far and wide, it had also seized on that part of this monastery where the
men abode, and they were daily hurried away to the Lord. The careful
mother of the community began often to inquire of the sisters, when they
were gathered together; in what part of the monastery they desired to be
buried and a cemetery to be made, when the same affliction should fall
upon that part of the monastery in which the handmaids of the Lord dwelt
together apart from the men, and they should be snatched away out of this
world by the same destruction as the rest. Receiving no certain answer
from the sisters, though she often questioned them, she and all of them
received a most certain answer from the Divine Providence. For one night,
after matins had been sung, and those handmaids of Christ had gone out of
their chapel to the tombs of the brothers who had departed this life
before them, and were singing the customary songs of praise to the Lord,
on a sudden a light from heaven, like a great sheet, came down upon them
all, and struck them with such amazement, that, in consternation, they
even left off singing their hymn. But that resplendent light, in
comparison wherewith the sun at noon-day might seem dark, soon after,
rising from that place, removed to the south side of the monastery, that
is, to the westward of the chapel, and having continued there some time,
and rested upon those parts, in the sight of them all withdrew itself
again to heaven, leaving no doubt in the minds of all, but that the same
light, which was to lead or to receive the souls of those handmaids of
Christ into Heaven, also showed the place in which their bodies were to
rest and await the day of the resurrection. The radiance of this light was
so great, that one of the older brethren, who at the same time was in
their chapel with another younger than himself, related in the morning,
that the rays of light which came in at the crannies of the doors and
windows, seemed to exceed the utmost brightness of daylight.
Chap. VIII. How a little boy, dying in the same monastery, called upon a
virgin that was to follow him; and how another nun, at the point of
leaving her body, saw some small part of the future glory. [675 A.D.?]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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